Online or “terminal based” lottery games are well known in the art. Such games typically have a game theme, such as “Pick-3”, Pick-4”, “Lotto”, “Powerball”, and so forth. These games are conducted at multiple gaming terminals located at various commercial establishments, with the terminals in communication with a central gaming authority computer system. Players purchase a lottery ticket at the point of sale terminals. Generally, the games are premised on the basic concept of a player placing a wager and selecting one or more objects (i.e., numbers, letters, symbols, and the like) from a defined field of such objects, for example by completing a play slip, or opting for a randomly generated selection by the terminal. At a later established time, the gaming authority conducts the lottery draw wherein a set of the objects is randomly generated and published. Players win if their selection matches one or some combination of the randomly generated objects.
Online lottery games are attractive to gaming authorities in that the games can be conducted over a broad geographic region to a large number of players for a single play event. The games can be closely monitored and controlled by the host system and networked game terminals. The prize awards to players are typically larger for online games as compared to instant play games (i.e., instant scratch-off lottery tickets), which is attractive to potential players.
It is generally recognized in the industry that new and different games are essential to sustaining the public's interest and participation in lottery games. Game themes grow stale over time, and must be replaced with newer, more exciting games. In this regard, the instant play lottery games have an advantage over online games in that they are amenable to a wider range of game concepts and themes. New and widely varying themes for instant lottery game tickets are continuously offered. Development and successful implementation of new online lottery games is, however, significantly more difficult.
The present invention is useful in that it provides a method and system for conducting an online lottery game that retains the benefits of online gaming yet offers the attraction to players of instant play lottery games.